Away with You
by P.S.ILoveYou44
Summary: It's April of "the gang"'s senior year. They're waiting their college acceptance letters. Everybody is on edge. But once they know, the real fun begins...
1. m’s the center of attention

**Alone with You**

Disclaimer: I don't own the masterpiece that is The OC. I could try and persuade Fox, or whoever has the rights with my amazing savings. Which totals.. 15 bucks! Yeah, doesn't sound like much to me either.

Author's Note: So this is going to begin about April of "the gang"'s senior year. Most of them are waiting to hear about their college acceptances… Let's get this gravy train on the road!

_**m**'s the center of attention_

"Feel free to say whatever you want. How you're feeling, with admission letters coming any day now." Seth Cohen focused his camcorder on Marissa's face, making sure her sweet little diamond studs were in the frame. Though their campus was crazed and tense with stress, the beach, like always, was seemingly peaceful. There was the calming sound of the waves crashing against the sand and rock. The bright sun beating down on girls who lay on the beach, wanting an early start on their summer tanning. There was the bunch of seniors playing volleyball to direct their angst and fear at a specific point. The slight warm breeze blew against her dirty blonde locks, and through his dark brown Jew-fro. "You can start whenever you want," he stated, pressing the record button.

Marissa Cooper licked her dry lips, then tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear with a perfectly manicured hand and shifted her weight on the light blue towel Seth had given her to sit on.

"I promised myself that if Ryan and I got into the same school, everything would be perfect," She began, pausing to bite her bottom lip. "But now, I might not even be going to college. I mean, technically, he and I are broken up. But when I'm with Ryan, like, nothing else matters. Just me and him." She looked at Seth's face, and tried to ignore its obvious discomfort. "And I tried to accept the fact that we were done. But I couldn't. See, I'm used to getting what I want. And the only thing I really want is him."

That wasn't exactly the truth. She wanted more than that. But except for wanting her dad to finally come back from Maui after his 15-month absence, that was the major thing.

"Ha! Nice try, _losers_!" one of the volleyball players exclaimed after winning a point. It reminded her of her ex-boyfriend, Luke. Luke, who had cheated on her numerous times, then slept with her mother after he and Marissa broke it off, left Newport Beach for Portland with his gay father about 2-years before.

She closed her sparkling blue eyes then opened them again. "And it feels like with all the stuff that's happened to me and my family since sophomore year, I deserve something I want. You know? And some of my friends – like Zach, for example – don't care. They know things are going to be ok. But I don't. I'm living with my slut of a mother, and her creepy husband. No offense, Seth."  
"Nah, it's fine," Seth remarked casually, "keep going."

"It feels like Ryan's my one chance to get away from it all. My escape. Like he's my chance to be happy. And it seems like if I had Ryan," a tear began to stream down her face, "I'd know it'd all be alright."

Cue the applause.

Author's Note: Ok, that was a little shorter than it seemed like it was going to be. And I really don't know where my phrasing is coming from. Anyway, leave me a review if you like it. :)


	2. r sees everything she does

Disclaimer: I have not the rights to any of these characters. Not a single one.

Author's Note: Thank you guys for the awesome, awesome reviews. I really appreciate it. :). Anyway, I'm gonna stop talking and start the fic-ness. Hehe, I love adding –ness onto things.

_**r** sees everything she does_

Ryan Atwood walked down the cemented boardwalk, sort of shuffling his feet against the sand tracked out from the beach. He heard traces of her voice. But he thought his ears were deceiving him. So he turned his head. Then there she was. He stood there and stared at her spilling her heart out to Seth. He was in awe. She was just so gorgeous, smiling and slightly blushing. He started at her head and glanced her body over. Noting that her naturally wavy hair had dried straight and sat loosely on her shoulders. He looked at her pink Juicy sweats, her flat white flip-flops. Then to her white poplin covered breasts. He paused at her enormous belly. She was everything he wanted. Everything he could ever ask for or want. And more.

But he felt like a sick perv thinking that. Afterall, she was seven-months pregnant.

He shook his head to snap out of his own thoughts and walked on the sand to her.

When he arrived at his destination, he squatted and hugged her, whispering, "Hey," into her ear.

"Hey," she responded, smiling, before kissing his cheek like she had done countless times before. He pulled away and smiled back at her.

Seth looked between the pair, then sighed and commented, "I'm gonna go watch the playback." But neither Ryan or Marissa heard him.

"So what's up?" she asked him.

"Nothing," he responded. Which was a lie. He had a ton of homework. But he'd rather spend his time with her. Talk to her. Or whatever. He just wanted to be in her company. "So, I was just thinking about getting a Balboa Bar?" he half-asked.

"Ooh," she replied, loving that he could read her mind like that. "Really?"

"Um, yeah. You wanna come?"

"Yes!" she exclaimed zealously, trying to stand up in the midst. He offered his hand to hers. She graciously took it, then he pulled her up onto her feet and she dropped it.

As the walked to the vendor, their hands found each other again, bringing back that feeling. The feeling they both loved. Longed for. The feeling that never arose in different company.

As they kept walking, Marissa took her first bites into her ice cream, and Ryan asked, "So, how are you?"

"Tired," she responded, with a small, nervous laugh. "And kind of nervous. A little bit scared."

"Why?"

"I don't know. There's just so much I can worry about."

"'Ey, stop stressing. It's the last thing you need. Everything will be fine."

"Really?"

"Yeah," he replied with a sly little smile that could only be described as drool-worthy.

She didn't exactly believe the words he spoke, but she was willing to try. For Ryan.

Marissa looked over at his handsome face and started to giggle. "Ryan, you have chocolate. Right here," she pointed to the corner of her mouth.

He stuck his tongue out to try and clean it. "I get it?"

She shook her head. "No. Here, let me."

Marissa leaned in and up for his lips, kissing them with medium strength, brushing her tongue against his lips. Then pulling her head away, she realized that she had reignited their spark.

He titled his head a little bit and had his free hand fly to her head, making sure her lips didn't leave his. He opened his mouth and wished they could just do it there on the boardwalk. But he refrained.

Aww, shucks.

Author's note: So that was a little bit longer than the last one. Not much, but a little. Anyway, leave me a review. :)

Peace out…


	3. the latest thing l doesn’t have

Disclaimer: I am not entitled to any of the OC-ers. That would be like soo cool, though.

Author's Note: Sorry if that last one was confusing. It made sense to me, but then again, I know what's supposed to be happening. lol. Yes, Marissa is pregnant. And, yes, Seth and Summer will be in this story. Just, not yet… And, to** A**: yeah, I'm making it like Gossip Girl on purpose ;).

_the latest thing **l** doesn't have_

Across the beach, Lindsay walked barefoot on the hot sand. She held her strappy heels in one hand and a lollipop in the other, just walking along, minding her own business.

"Heads!" one of the volleyball players called to the field of tanning girls. Lindsay mistook the call to be for her and looked behind her. Big Mistake.

She spotted her two best friends devouring the other's face. Then, her green-blue eyes spotted a speck fall from Ryan's hand onto a rock below. She just sighed, thinking they looked like an advertisement for: horny teens, horny pregnant teens, and true love. Though she had known for a long time that the pair was, and always would be that, a pair, it always slightly surprised her when they got back together so rapidly. And, no matter how often she'd seen them kiss, it always slightly bothered her to see her lab partner/nephew attack her stepsister's face like that. She couldn't understand why they couldn't wait to be in private. Why they couldn't save their dignity. But she knew she was just jealous. Because she wished she could understand. She wished she had love like that. She wished she could just _buy_ it. As, ever since her induction into the Nichol family, she could buy almost anything her heart desired. Except love, of course.

And whenever she saw Ryan and Marissa kissing like that. Or kissing like that _in public_. She remembered when Ryan told her he wasn't a big fan of the PDA. And she remembered when she had realized why he had said that. When she had found out about his and Marissa's relationship, then found out that the duo kissed _all _the time. Because he loved Marissa the way he could never love anyone else. _Or loves_, Lindsay mentally corrected herself. She remembered how crushed she felt after coming to that realization.

Not that boys hadn't flocked to her. There was Paolo, the Italian painter, who serenaded her on a gondola in Venice; Leo, the English lord, who wanted her to elope with him to the carribean; Charlie, who kissed her the whole way up the Eiffel Tower… And that was just the little tour of Europe she took with Marissa the summer before. Then there was Jesse, on the slopes of Tahoe during Winter Break; Parker, the Hawaiian surfer from her Spring Break; Brad, the Water Polo player who'd hit on her at lunch. And Ryan Atwood, the boy she almost lost her virginity to, and the one she'd love forever. But just as a friend, and aunt.

Yes, Lindsay Gardner, or Lindsay Nichol, as people had started to call her about a year before, had become more of a boy magnet than ever since her senior year at Harbor. She didn't know why, either. And the thought continued to plague her thoughts. Sure, she had started to combine her and Marissa's fashion senses, but she didn't think that was a very good excuse.

Still, she had never experienced the kind of love Ryan Atwood and Marissa Cooper shared.

She tossed the remnants of her lollipop into a trash can as she came to the paved boardwalk and decided to walk towards the pair, heels clicking as she quickened her pace.

As she drew closer to the couple, heads turned, staring at her, or maybe Ryan and Marissa… Most likely her. Because she was Lindsay, Lindsay, Lindsay, everything the boys ever wanted.

Not that they'd ever talk to her and the short skirt she was wearing, that was being slightly blown up in the back by the wind. She was Ryan's aunt, and friend, and if the boys hurt her in any way, shape, or form… He might find them, and beat their ass in. If he could turn his attention away from Marissa's lips long enough, that is.

"Why don't you guys just go to the pool house?" she joked as she reached them.

Ryan and Marissa turned their heads to look at her with dazed, happy expressions on their faces.

"Did you talk to Seth?" she asked Marissa.

"Yeah," Marissa replied, nodding, "but not for very long, because Ryan was staring at me the whole time."

"No I wasn't!" Ryan protested.

"Ok, Ry," Marissa soothed.

"Yeah, I was," Ryan confessed. He was, and forever would be, whipped when he was around Marissa. And there was nothing he could do about it.

"Anyway," Lindsay moved the conversation, "You're not stressing too much? I mean, it can't be good for my little niece or nephew."

Marissa laughed, "No." It was funny how close they had become. Closer than Marissa was with Kaitlin, her full sister. And almost as close as she was with Summer. "No, I'm not. But have you heard anything yet?"

"No, not yet."

"Poo, I'm really hoping for Yale."

"Yeah, me too." The girls laughed, realizing they had rhymed. "Anyway, I'm gonna be late for my pedicure. So, see you two for dinner at the.. Cohens'?"

"Yeah," she said before hugging Lindsay.

"Bye."

Lindsay walked off, and as soon as Ryan and Marissa deemed her far enough away, they returned to their make out session.

Author's Note: Whoa, that was a lot longer than the past chapters… Hmm… Anyway, hope it wasn't too confusing, and that this cleared up some questions. Leave me a review on your way out!

Peace & Love…


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